Lucky Brake?
by Kieran McGovern
Taken from the Tall Tales Teaching Pack
CEF English language level: B1/pre-intermediate
Yuri’s lucky day? The 24-year-old thief watches a Moscow street from the window of a third floor apartment. Below him a mechanic is working on a Nissan Primera. The car is parked in front of a garage. The mechanic appears to be doing some minor paintwork. The mechanic goes back inside the garage. Yuri notices that the mechanic does not lock the car. He even leaves the car keys in the ignition.
A policeman gets out of the police car. Yuri wants to run But he is trapped by the Primera’s air bag. ‘What were you doing?’ asks the policeman. ‘Why did you got through a red light?’ It’s not Yuri’s lucky day, after all. He spends the rest of it in a police cell © 2013 Kieran McGovern: ESOL ePacks
Vocabulary Brake - slow or stop a car
Easy?
Break - a chance/opportunity
Yuri hurries across to the car. He gets into the driving seat. The hand brake is off. He turns the ignition key. The car starts first time and Yuri out into the road. He looks behind him. Nobody is following the stolen car! Yuri begins to relax At the first junction there are traffic lights. They turn red. Yuri tries to brake. But his foot goes straight down to the floor. And the car does not slow down. This is because the brakes are not inside the car. They are in the hands of the mechanic in the garage. He has come out to fit them in the Break Nissan Primera. But the car is not there
Escape? The car continues straight through the red traffic light. At the same time a police car is crossing the junction from the side. It crashes into the Nissan Primera.
Lucky - to have good fortune Mechanic - repairs cars Ignition - starts car Garage - place to store car Lock - close & secure Traffic Lights - see right Junction - where roads meet After all - in the end
& Brake are homophones. Homophones are words with the same sound but different spellings and meanings. Why do you thinks this story is called Lucky Brake? Is Yuri lucky? Why?/Why not?
True or False? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Yuri notices a man working on a car The mechanic drives the car away The brakes do not work The mechanic drives the Nissan away
5. Stealing the car is easy 6. A police car chases Nissan 7. Yuri goes through a red traffic light
Lucky Brake is included in the ESOL ePack - Intermediate Teaching Pack